In March 2002, thirteen-year-old Milly Dowler was abducted as she made her way home from school, sparking one of the biggest murder investigations in the history of Surrey Police. In the subsequent two years, Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange were brutally murdered while walking home at night. The man responsible for these murders - as well as other violence against women and girls - was Levi Bellfield. When the body of Amelie Delagrange was discovered on Twickenham Green in 2004, criminal behavioural analyst Laura Richards - at the time head of Scotland Yard's Homicide Prevention Unit - was called upon to support the investigation and find other linked offences to inform the profile of the killer. After much painstaking work, patterns began to emerge and the hunt was on for a perpetrator who had struck more than once, and who was targeting lone, blonde females. In this gripping book, Laura describes the investigation from her unique position on the inside. She offers a searing examination of the criminal mind as she explores in detail the life and behaviour of Bellfield, seeking to understand why he carried out these terrible crimes - and how he had got away with it for so long.

Author Biography

Laura Richards is a criminal behavioural analyst who, for over a decade, worked in intelligence and serious crime at New Scotland Yard. Laura also trained in the FBI and has profiled many cases including the murders of Clare Bernal and Sally-Ann Bowman. Laura set up the first Homicide Prevention Unit in the UK, as well as heading up the Violent Crime Intelligence and Analysis Unit in the Metropolitan Police Service. She advises the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), police services across the UK and the Home Office on violent crime and public protection. Laura was responsible for developing DASH, the Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour-based Violence Risk Assessment and Management Model, which is used by most police services in the UK. Laura spearheaded the successful all-party parliamentary stalking law reform inquiry, which led to a new stalking law being passed in 2012. In 2013, Laura launched Paladin, the National Stalking Advocacy Service, which supports high-risk victims of stalking and has been at the forefront of the successful campaign to criminalise domestic abuse, 2014-15.